Still Life with Harley

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. One day last summer, I pulled into my bank’s parking lot next to the most beautiful motorcycle, ever. The Harley was chromed everywhere and sparkled in the sun, throwing little reflected fireballs every direction.

I spent the next five or ten minutes taking photos of that wondrous ride, and the next six months knowing I was going to draw it. But how could I really show it off?

Skip forward to cold and rainy winter.

While thumbing through a book of colored pencil drawings, it occurred to me that I was looking at a lot of still lifes. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate good art and technique, but most still lifes seem to involve some combination of doilies, glassware, bowls, tableclothes and fruit. Oranges, cherries, pears, grapes. Usually an apple. Apples everywhere. Nice. But just not my style.

It might be fun to do a still life, I thought, but how could I possibly say anything new? All the candlesticks and apples had been drawn so many times before.

But hey, wait! Why NOT do a still life…on my own terms? It didn’t take long for me to twist-up the still life idea to include that lovely Harley.